The invention relates to a marine oil storage installation particularly adapted for the storage of petroleum. p Conventional oil storage installations have been constructed on the shore. Such oil storage installations present the posibility of disasters due to ground subsidence or earthquake shocks. Disasters particularly disasters due to ground subsidence have actually happened. Furthermore, such oil storage installations are normally fixed on the ground and cannot be transferred to another location, and therefore it is extremely difficult to protect them from fires which may spread from adjacent buildings. On the contrary, it is easy for a fire in the oil storage installation to spread to adjacent buildings.
Furthermore, it becomes more and more difficult to construct oil storage facilities, which require a large installation area, on the shore which permit ingress and egress of oil tankers.
The present invention has for its object to eliminate the above-mentioned difficulties by providing an oil storage installation comprising at least one floating type oil storage tank provided with shore connection means, each said storage tank having double walled side walls and a double walled bottom, protector means composed of at least one line of floating members surrounding each oil storage tank for protecting the oil storage tank from damage as the result of contacting moving objects and waves and for preventing oil from flowing out, mooring means for drawing each oil storage tank, loading arm means adapted for connection and disconnection with the shore connection means, a shore based facility installed on the shore or on an artificial land and communicating with said loading arm means, and a platform installed on the sea for moorage of tankers and provided with means communicating with said shore based facility for feeding oil between said tankers and said shore based facility.
The construction of the oil storage installation in accordance with the present invention has numerous advantages in comparison with the conventional oil storage installation constructed on the shore. First, since the oil storage installation of the present invention is constructed on the sea, ground subsidence and earthquake shocks have no effect on the oil storage installation and the possibility of the fire spreading from any building on the shore to the oil storage tank or from the oil storage tank to the building can be reduced. Further, if the fire spreading cannot be avoided, the oil storage tank may be transferred to a desired location after opening the oil fence and the floating member line. Second, the construction of the oil storage tank on the sea eliminates the need to secure the location for the oil storage installation. Third, since the wave arrester of the oil storage installation is of the floating type, it is easier in comparison with a wave arrester installed on the ocean floor to move the combination of the oil storage tank, the oil fence, and the wave arrester to a desired location merely by prolonging the oil tank mooring means and the connection means.